Word of the Day
Learn a new word every day! The Dictionary.com team of language experts carefully selects each Word of the Day to add some panache to your vocabulary.
something easily done, fixed, etc.: He was really worried about my finishing the fence repairs on my own, but it was a doddle.
Doddle, “something easy to do or fix,” is a British colloquialism of uncertain origin. Some say it comes from Scottish doddle “a small lump of toffee” (and therefore attractive and easy to make away with). Some say doddle may come from the verb dawdle “to waste time, idle.” Doddle may also be a variant of the verb toddle “to move with short unsteady steps” (as a toddler does). Doddle entered English in the first half of the 20th century.
of or suggestive of Prometheus.
Promethean is the adjective derived from Prometheus, one of the Titans, the race of divine beings that preceded the Olympian gods (there was bad ichor between the two races). The Greek poet Hesiod interpreted Prometheus as “Forethought”; Prometheus’ twin brother Epimetheus was therefore “Afterthought.” Prometheus and Epimetheus (and Atlas, too) were sons of Iapetus, whose Hebrew equivalent, Japheth, is a son of Noah (Genesis 5:32). Promethean entered English towards the end of the 16th century.
a short and witty or sarcastic saying or writing.
The noun squib, “a short and witty or sarcastic saying,” dates from the end of the 16th century, a development of its original sense, “a small firework that burns with a hissing noise but doesn’t explode.” The word has no definitive etymology, but it is most likely onomatopoeic. Squib entered English in the first half of the 16th century.
(in music) playful; sportive.
Scherzando, “playful,” is an adjective used in music. Like many musical terms, scherzando is of Italian origin, it being the gerund of the verb scherzare “to joke.” The noun scherzo, “a musical movement or passage of light or playful character,” is another derivative from the verb. Italian scherzare is most likely a borrowing from Middle High German scherzen “to jump for joy, enjoy (oneself).” Scherzando entered English in the second half of the 18th century.
the cultivation of vegetables for the home or market.
Starting from the end, the -iculture of olericulture “cultivation of vegetables for the home or market” is familiar to us from compounds like agriculture “the cultivation of land for crops,” and the relatively recent apiculture “beekeeping, especially commercial beekeeping.” The first part of olericulture comes from oleri-, the inflectional stem of the Latin noun olus (also holus) “a vegetable, vegetables, kitchen herb,” which is related to the adjective helvus “yellowish, dun (of cattle).” Helvus is the Latin result of the Proto-Indo-European adjective ghelwos “bright, yellow,” a derivative of the Proto-Indo-European root ghel- “to shine,” a root that is particularly associated with colors. Latin has another adjective gilvus “yellowish” (used of domestic animals), a borrowing from a Celtic language. Much, much closer to home, ghelwos becomes gelwa- in the Germanic languages, the source of English yellow. Olericulture entered English in the second half of the 19th century.
